Glorious Goodwood: Why name game doesn't need Stewards' inquiry

Prepare for change: Goodwood has now given into the ways of modern day sport

As the actress said to the bishop, I find myself in an unusual position.

Regular readers will know that I’m not scared of taking one side in an argument, even if it’s not the one that will gain me the most friends in the racing community.

But the truth is that I can see the strength in both arguments behind the tear-up triggered by the announcement on Wednesday that the Stewards’ Cup, first staged in 1840, will be run as the 32Red Cup in four weeks’ time.

Yes, this annual six-furlong bookies’ benefit is a historic race, and it’s history that is often perceived as one of racing’s big selling points.

But racing is also a commercial activity in which the bottom line forces us to move with the times.

The Whitbread Gold Cup has for some years been supported by bet365, while the Cheltenham Festival changes its race titles – such as the Bayliss & Harding Affordable Luxury Handicap Chase – more often than most racing journalists change their underpants.

The wind of change blows through other sports, too.

Arsenal no longer play at Highbury, or even Ashburton Grove – where the Gunners’ stadium is sited – but at ‘the Emirates’.

Last week, this column discussed the publication of a private conversation between Martin Dwyer and Paul Mulrennan, in which they spoke of which horses they were going to “back”, and also how many thousands of pounds were wagered on a hot favourite that should not have been allowed to run.

Those issues still vex me, as does a bloated Fixture List that results in single-figure fields all year round, while our sport still has a war on drugs to wage.

Old-timers might call me names for saying so, but, in the context of those issues that blight racing, the Stewards’ Cup name change doesn’t keep me awake at night.

If you are selling your house, and a chancer offers you the change from down the back of their sofa, you tell them to take a running jump.

That was Goodwood’s right – and they chose not to.

Finally – and it gives me absolutely no satisfaction to say this – but it’s almost seven years to the day since Goodwood supremo Lord March won Steaming’s Plonker Of The Week award for saying there were “far too many chavs” on Britain’s racecourses.

Business was obviously booming on the South Downs – to the extent that his Lordship felt he could pick and choose who came through the gates.

Well, if Goodwood is selling 174 years of history for a one-year sponsorship deal and a few grand, maybe the living these days isn’t so easy.